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Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas

Never come across anyone who thinks that! Most folk know that 25th December = first day of Christmas and 6th Jan is 12th day.. after all, that's when Christmas trees are taken down.

As a Lutheran pastor, I think it would be neat to let Advent be Advent and then do up Christmas big for the full Twelve Days. But I realize this is overly idealistic, given how much the church has been influenced by the culture around us. It's virtually impossible to keep Christmas entirely "out" until Christmas Eve, and it's very hard to do much "Christmassy" stuff after December 25.

I have been able, though, in my previous parish, to save the church's caroling outing (when we go out to the nursing home and the homes of the shut-ins) until the Sunday after Christmas. Most all the other groups "bombard" the nursing home earlier in December, so we could kind of "fill a niche" by coming a couple days after Christmas Day. And we always keep up the Christmas tree until after the last service before January 6.

I too have never come across anyone who thought the Twelve Days of Christmas were the days leading up to Christmas.

Of course, the season of Advent is the church's time leading up to the Nativity of Our Lord. It is a season of penitential preparation, and of hope and anticipation for our Lord's coming. Advent always has four Sundays, which works out to it starting on the Sunday closest to November 30 (the festival of St. Andrew).

There is a series of days leading up more directly to Christmas. The "O Antiphons"--seven brief prayers for Christ's coming--are sung starting on December 17 and going for seven days, through December 23. Each of the O Antiphons addresses our Lord with a vocative "O," followed by a different Christological title. These titles, originally written in Latin, have an interesting little twist that emerges at the end of the seven days:

Sapientia, Wisdom
Adonai, i.e., the LORD
Radix, Root (of Jesse)
Clavis, Key (of David)
Oriens, Dayspring
Rex, King (of the Nations)
Emmanuel, i.e., "God with us"

The initial letters, S-A-R-C-O-R-E, don't spell anything. But reverse the order and divide into two words, and you get:

ERO CRAS

Ero cras, in Latin, means, "I will be, tomorrow." And that sentence is not formed until December 23, the day before Christmas Eve. So that is Christ's answer to our prayers for his coming: "Tomorrow, I will be!" Emmanuel, God coming to be with us, in the birth of the Christ child!

not true where I live....seems the day after Christmas people are loathe to even put there lights on outside...

not us...we will leave them up til Jan 6th....known as "little Christmas" or "Russian Christmas" or as the symbolic day the Three Kings arrived at the manger....

it is surprising how the culture that we middle aged people grew up on is unknown to so many...

that's is why I say...talk to your kids...explain everything....they are missing so much of the world and its history and its culture because the schools are so limited and rigid ...

I went to Catholic school but I bet it was true for all schools `30 or 40 yrs ago....the teacher would talk and muse about so many subjects ...it didn't matter that it was off topic...the teacher would just talk and talk about all sorts of things and we learned so much just by listening ....

we got a smattering of all religions and languages and of all history and geography....

You have a set day when you bring the tree down? With us it isn't on a certain day. Just, whenever...